Diana Palm's problems started a couple of years ago with the uninvited visitor who started showing up in the middle of the night in her Stillwater apartment.

"Night after night, we'd see a man walk past the bedroom door," she said. She jumped up in alarm, but there would be nobody there when she went to investigate.

There were knocking noises, too. The TV and the lights would go on and off by themselves. She heard unexplained voices and the sounds of laughing, crying and howling.

Others saw spooky-ooky stuff, too. Palm's 10-year-old daughter and a friend said there was an old woman in the bathroom who talked to them. Neighbors in the threeplex said they had seen people walking up and down the old house's staircases. Palm's sister reported seeing a stream of people parading through the living room one night.

"It was at the point where I was afraid to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night," said Palm, 35, who works in the real estate business. "It's pretty strange for me. I'm a real practical person."

So she did some research. Located on the city's North Hill, the house where Palm lives was built in 1882 by one of the town's first mayors, she said. Before the area was developed, however, it was used as an informal graveyard, Palm said.

She burned some sage and said a prayer to clear the home.

"I put some rosaries out. I had some holy water," she said. "I kind of wanted to get to the bottom of it."

Then she heard about something called the Minnesota Paranormal Investigative Group, a small band of Twin Cities area residents whose hobby is trying to figure out what causes things to go bump in the night.

"The goals of the group are to seek out and authenticate evidence of ghosts, research ghost stories, sightings and conduct investigations into paranormal activity in the states of Minnesota, western Wisconsin and more specifically for the Twin City metro area," according to the group's Web site, www.minnesotaparanormal investigators.com.

"I basically focus on hauntings, ghosts, life after death, psychic abilities, things of that nature," said John Savage, who started the group in 1997.

Gina Booth, co-founder of the group, said many of the members got involved because they want to find proof of life after death.

They do their investigations for free. Many of the people who contact them aren't necessarily looking for help in getting rid of a haunting.

"We do that on occasion, too," Booth said. But "a lot of people, more often than not, don't really mind the fact they have a ghost."

People often contact the group to get confirmation that they're not nuts, that there really is something out there, Booth said.

BRING IN THE EXPERTS

That's how a handful of the investigators ended up at Palm's home one night earlier thismonth.

They came toting tools of the paranormal investigation trade: still, video and motion-detection cameras, a tape recorder used to pick up "electronic voice phenomena" (the voices of ghosts), and electric and magnetic field detectors.

"We want to make sure there isn't a logical explanation for something before we jump to a paranormal conclusion," Booth said.

There was also some lower-tech gear. An L-shaped metal wand, for example.

"It's just a coat hanger," said investigator Deb Sutton.

But she said it acts as a dousing rod, attracting energy and allowing her to communicate with spirits.

Phil Hatfield brought a notebook and a pen. The group members regard him as one of their psychics.

"He sees stuff," said Sutton, a school bus driver.

"I talk to them and see them," said Hatfield, who owns a construction company.

Hatfield and Sutton told Palm not to reveal to them what she's experienced until they had a chance to check out the place for themselves.

The investigators started with a walk-through of the apartment. It's full of unusual details from its Victorian origin and its modern-day remodeling. There's stained glass, detailed woodworking, pocket doors, skylights, loft bedrooms, spiral staircases and mysterious panels in the floor.

Palm pointed out some storage space, and Booth confirmed the fears of generations of spooked children.

"They like to hide in closets," she said of paranormal phenomena. "There's no such thing as just a closet."

There was also a typically ominous old house basement.

'THIS WHOLE PLACE IS CHARGED'

It was down there that Sutton aimed her video camera at a gloomy corner near the water heater.

"I'm looking for … well, entities come in a lot of different forms," she said. Paranormal enthusiasts say sometimes cameras can capture blurs or orbs of light that they see as evidence of the energy being given off by a ghost.

"Always, before I take a picture, I ask permission," Sutton said. "Because they're people like we are, just not in this form. Hopefully, my gut intuition is right, so they'll let me."

"It's too quiet in here," she announced as she ran the video camera.

But that was before she started a conversation with her dousing rod.

"I asked is there someone here," she said after the wand in her hand moved to the left. That indicated yes, she said.

"I'm going to ask if they're male or female," she said. "Supposedly, there's a female down here. Is there more than one person down here? Yes."

"OK, supposedly, what they're telling me is two females are here, from around the area, who died between 80 and 90 years old."

Upstairs in the kitchen, Cathy Olson, a friend of Palm's, gave a little jump.

"Someone just touched me!" she said. "I thought it was the cat, and there was nothing there."

"There is stuff here. There's no doubt about that," Hatfield said.

"It's touching me right now," Olson said.

"It's kind of a mass confusion," Hatfield said. "There's more than five here. All of them want to talk at the same time. I'm trying to get to a place where I can communicate with one individual."

Hatfield asked if the place used to be a doctor's office. It was once an infirmary, Palm said.

Sutton announced that the batteries on her video camera went dead. She said that's a possible indication of some paranormal energy in the place.

"This whole place is charged," said investigator Jon Rehkamp, as he pointed his magnetic field detectors around the apartment. "Even outside. Normally, you never get anything outside."

The investigators also toured the neighbor's apartment where Palm used to live and where she first started seeing things.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Back in the basement, Hatfield sat down and started scribbling in his notebook.

"It's like the night of the living dead," he said. "Geeze Louise, where are they all coming from?"

"What I'm seeing is all these people trying to get out of the ground. I can see that they're skeletal, but they still have flesh hanging on them. They're coming out hands first. But they're pulling themselves out."

Lots of them?

"Yeah, anywhere from 20 to 30."

Hatfield said he also sensed something on the upstairs level.

"You might get something in that bathroom," he told Rehkamp.

"I didn't pick anything up," he said.

Hatfield fell into silence, his hand to his brow in apparent concentration.

"A doctor," he announced. "I'm talking to the doctor right now."

More silence. Hatfield closed his eyes and tilted his head back and forth like he was trying to get better reception. More scribbling.

"Phil?" Sutton said. He didn't answer. "It's kind of long and boring, but that's how it goes," Sutton said. "Sometimes, you sit in a darkened place for hours."

She said she's never seen a ghost. But "I keep hoping."

Then Hatfield said, "How big is the graveyard?"

THE GRIM REAPER

The investigators interviewed Palm and her neighbors. And they started giving reports on what they found there.

Hatfield said he talked to a doctor who was known as "the grim reaper doctor, because he was the one who chose if they were better off dead or alive."

A female spirit told Hatfield that Palm's daughter shouldn't fear her. She just misses her own daughter who drowned.

"Sorry about the books and pictures," Hatfield quoted the spirits as saying.

""I'm constantly straightening pictures," Palm said. "But I just thought it was because it's an old house."

Hatfield said he saw people in the basement trying to come to the surface with the ground rotating underneath them.

"So what does that mean?" Sutton said.

"I don't know," he said.

There is the spirit of a little boy in the house, the investigators reported. A hanging took place in one of the upper bedrooms. And someone pushed another person down one of the stairs. Someone died of natural causes in Palm's bedroom, and there's a lot of energy in the upstairs bathroom, Hatfield said.

Sutton showed some video she shot that shows a speck of light flitting across the room. Palm brought out a photo she snapped that has a blob of white in the corner. She thinks it looks like a face.

Palm mentioned the parade of people her sister saw in the house. There's a portal in this room, the ghost hunters said. That's a sort of ghost entry and exitway to the spirit world, they said.

The investigators explained that some of the stuff Palm has seen in the house are what they call a "residual haunting."

That's the paranormal world's way of playing back events that happened in the past. Those images won't interact with the viewer. Nothing to worry about, they said.

There's also an intelligent haunting going on at the house — spirits that are able to interact with people. Later, the investigators said they captured the voice of one of them on tape saying, "Please don't leave."

Saturday, October 30, 2004

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Halloween isn't the only time ghosts and spirits haunt parts of Tennessee. Nancy Acuff should know. The retired East Tennessee State University professor has investigated many sightings in the region and helped people understand why places might be haunted.

In time for the spooky holiday, Acuff recalled some of her most interesting hunts for haunts.

A Jonesborough man called Acuff once and told her his house was haunted.

"He woke up one morning to find the image of a dead, bloody child on the floor beside his bed; very traumatic," Acuff said.

"Sometime later, while watching television one night, he said he saw the image of two turn-of-the-century-dressed families walk through his house."

Acuff told the man to set up a video camera in the hallway to try to capture the image. Acuff and the man reviewed the video and saw what appeared to be a globe of light at first, followed by the shadows of a man, a woman and two children.

Then out of nowhere a voice shouted, "What are all these ghosts doing here?"

"The gentleman almost fainted when we heard that voice," she said. "The voice, he said, was the voice of his late wife, who had died of cancer a while back."

Acuff found evidence that a small child had been killed on a road near the house to explain the image the man saw.

Acuff said a church was once located near the man's house, and she believes the ghosts were walking to the church.

After Acuff found some explanations, the man told her the ghostly images stopped appearing.

There have been other ghostly sightings reported in Jonesborough.

The image of "Parson" Brownlow, a Methodist minister, founder of a newspaper in Jonesborough, governor of Tennessee immediately after the Civil War and later a U.S. Senator, has been seen walking the Jonesborough cemetery on some nights.

"He was a real fire-and-brimstone type of minister," Acuff said. "The thing that is puzzling is why his ghostly image has been seen here. He is buried in Knoxville."

Some believe one of his wives is buried there. Others think Brownlow buried five to six people at a time in graves at the cemetery after they died of typhoid or cholera.

Ghosts and spirits of dead people are not to blame for all hauntings. Acuff investigated another freaky episode she attributed to a doppelganger, a German word that means "double walker" and refers to an image or action of a person still alive.

A Johnson City woman, who Acuff described as intelligent and well-informed, told her that on certain holidays, birthdays or family gatherings she would come home and find her normally neat closet in disarray.

Acuff delved into the relationships in the woman's family to find an answer to the disturbance.

The woman's mother-in-law had Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites) and was living in a nursing home. The woman's husband never went to see his mother or call her because he regarded her as dead.

As Acuff tells it, after the family visited the nursing home and told the mother how concerned they were about her, the closet disturbances stopped.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Bungie.net : News: "MTV Halo 2 Special!
Posted by Frankie at 10/26/2004 9:18 AM
MTV: Music Television today announced that 'Making the Video Game: Halo 2' will premiere on MTV on Friday, November 5th at 11:00pm ET/PT, and MTV2 on Saturday, November 6th at 9:00pm ET. The special will give viewers an inside look at the making of Halo 2."

The site below offers the best definition and also tells you what to do and recognize when confronted with choices that will impact your computer.

For instance, here is a paragraph from the page:

The Excite Group, a large, publicly traded company, offers "SmileyCentral" AKA "FunWebProducts" free. Hmm...but they won't allow you to install "SmileyCentral" without "MyWebSearch" toolbar.(Note: The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is very close to banning such tactics as those kinds of tactics are typical of spyware). Excite Group/MyWay spends millions of dollars promoting their "free programs". This is an example where you really need to call upon your common sense and gut instincts despite the assurances they make of "No Spyware!". Why would a huge company give away something free and spend millions of dollars promoting it? Just because they like you so much? When is the last time General Motors gave you a car? Please...beware. Read the FULL EULA of products like HotBar, SmileyCentral (AKA MyWay, AKA FunWebProducts) and don't believe every "No Spyware!" you see. Sometimes companies merely take advantage of the many definitions of spyware to make empty promises. Be careful.What Is Spyware, How to Stop it, What to do about it

One other thing when doing your own analysis; Check the quality and reputation of the websites you are visiting. Sometimes one can never tell whether a site is objective or not, but most will have many clues, some obvious, that may help you to judge the site as fair or biased. My personal opinion is that most sites are biased toward something. Even my site is biased, but I like to present information equally and fairly. With that said, can you guess who I will vote for? Bet you can't!

Three powerful bursts of energy from different regions of space could presage spectacular explosions of huge stars, astronomers just announced.

The eruptions are likely imminent.

Scientists around the world are scrambling to track the blasts, NASA (news - web sites) officials said last night. There is no danger to Earth from the expected stellar explosions, called supernovas.

Yet never before have astronomers had such advance warning of the faraway explosions. In fact, they don't even know if their forecasts are right.

What is clear is that as the flashes develop into explosions -- or not -- knowledge of how stars die is likely to grow.

'Beautiful' bursts

A blast of X-rays was spotted Sept. 12, and another on Sept. 16. Each came from a different location in the sky and from galaxies far beyond our own. A more powerful eruption was detected Sept. 24 from yet another spot in the sky. This third flash, importantly, was on the verge between an X-ray eruption and a more energetic gamma-ray burst, which involves a more powerful form of radiation.

X-rays and gamma rays are types of light, just like less powerful visible light and lowly radio waves. All are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The three high-energy flashes were each discovered by NASA's orbiting High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE- 2) observatory. There is no reason to suspect there's any connection between the three blasts.

"We think it's just a strange coincidence," George Ricker, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites), said in a telephone interview today.

Telescopes around the world have since raced to track each event.

"Each burst has been beautiful," Ricker said. "Depending on how these evolve, they could support important theories about supernova[s] and gamma-ray bursts."

Ricker told SPACE.com the stars will likely go supernova 10 to 20 days after the initial bursts that were spotted.

The initial events have faded beyond the visibility of small professional telescopes and are now being monitored by some of the world's largest ground-based observatories. Backyard astronomers likely could not find the bursts, Ricker said.

Head-scratchers

Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic events in the universe other than the Big Bang. They briefly outshine entire galaxies. Astronomers think each burst is related to the explosion of a very massive star that has used up its main fuel. Much material is blasted into space, and some falls back rapidly and collapses into a tiny sphere more dense than most folks can imagine, resulting in the formation of a black hole.

In some cases, however, the energy might be unleashed when two black holes collide.

But experts are not sure why some supernovas are accompanied by gamma-ray bursts and others seem to shoot out only X-rays (the latter assumption has not even been convincingly determined). The leading theory is that when a star collapses after exploding, it sends out two incredibly swift jets of material, one along each of its poles. If a jet is pointed toward Earth, the thinking goes, we see a gamma-ray burst. Otherwise we note only the X rays.

Other theorists argue that gamma-ray bursts and X-ray flashes are different animals altogether.

All this could become much clearer in coming days as the three new eruptions are monitored by a global telescope network designed to detect each of the different wavelengths of energy involved.

Nature on a rampage

The eruptions are all probably a billion or so light-year away, Ricker said. That's relatively close in comparison to most gamma-ray bursts, which may explain why the X-ray flashes have been seen at all.

"These past two weeks have been like 'cock, fire, reload,'" Ricker said. "Nature keeps on delivering."

Until recently, the events leading up to gamma-ray bursts and black hole formation had not been seen.

The bursts are known to come routinely from every direction in the sky. But they last just seconds, sometimes less than a second, so in most cases only the aftermath is witnessed. Astronomers hope this time they've seen the prelude and can witness the entire process.

Observations of other events in recent years linked gamma-ray bursts to supernovas. Now, follow-up observations of the Sept. 24 blast, named GRB040924, suggests X-rays and gamma rays do indeed emanate from the same event.

The recent bursts "may be the first time we see an X-ray flash lead to a supernova," said theorist Stanford Woosley of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Chris says: "Of course this could be beginning of some great global change here on earth too." You never know... We've got wild hurricanes, increasing vulcan activities, etc. etc.....